Do not bug the bears: Social media photographers bugging wildlife in Jasper National forest|CBC News

Jasper National Park officials are concerned about the lengths some visitors want to go this summertime to get the perfect picture of wildlife.

Increasing interest from social networks is spurring more aggressive tactics to snap the ideal image of animals, Steve Malcolm, a human-wildlife conflict specialist with Parks Canada, said in an interview with CBC Edmonton.

“People that aren’t familiar with wildlife are following, getting close, chasing, pursuing it into the forest to get that better photo,” Malcolm stated. “It’s occurring all over the park.”

A collection of Jasper bear sightings just recently published to YouTube features one event that park officials reacted to, where a number of people can be seen standing outside of their automobiles, snapping pictures of a bear and her cubs by the roadside.

Inadequate area

With increasing visitors to the park, harassment of wildlife is on the increase, Malcolm stated.

“That includes individuals feeding wildlife, which is on the rise, which certainly has some substantial detrimental results on the result of that specific,” Malcolm stated.

Malcolm stated he has observed people “camping out on wildlife,” which means sticking with a specific animal that’s accessing food on the roadside.

“They will simply stop on the roadside and invest the whole day following that animal and taking images … numerous images,” Malcolm said.

“They’re basically following that animal all the time. That animal does not get any space. It’s continuously aware that someone is with them. And yeah, it’s becoming a bit of an issue.”

The park has been handling between 50 and 100 wildlife jams– traffic jams that take place when tourists sluggish or stop their automobiles on hectic roads to view an animal — daily, Malcolm stated.

This summer, the park discontinued its, which followed bear sightings, in an effort to offer wildlife area and to minimize the wildlife jams.

“Some of these jams can be managed for hours where a lot of the general public gets fantastic viewing chances and the animal isn’t jeopardized because they’re safe distances, everybody remains in their cars,” Malcolm said.

“It’s simply the ideal scenario for having everybody’s goals satisfied. However in the scenarios where we have individual animals that get disappointed or become intolerant of individuals constantly intruding that space and not offering them the correct area required to function, then they start exhibiting aggressive behaviour.”

Malcolm stated park officials are responding to wildlife jams and informing visitors on how to safely see wildlife.